Just Like A Jones
by 19844twfic
Summary: Mica may be a Davies, but sometimes she acts like a Jones. Set 13 years after the events of Children of Earth, the 456 have left their stamp on the earth and the government. The world is a very different place and Torchwood something that Jack doesn't want to acknowledge, but a promise made a long time ago brings him back to their door. Mica is in awe of a past she didn't know and
1. Chapter 1

Rhiannon put away the last final dishes from dinner and looked out the window; he was standing still there, he had been standing there since dinner ended just staring into space. Was he thinking about where he would go next, what he would do, or did Jack Harkness actually still stargaze? Her eyes followed him as he sat down on the grass and tucked his knees to his chest, running his fingers over something in his hand.

"What's he doing?" Johnny came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "He's a right odd bastard sometimes."

"Oi!" Rhiannon nudged him away. "He's family."

"He's still odd."

"Look at him Johnny." She held his arms around her and laced her fingers with his. "He looks so lonely here, so sad. Why does he even keep coming back?"

"There's an easy enough way to answer that."

Johnny let go of Rhiannon and grabbed two cans of beer from the fridge and took them outside. He walked down the garden path and stood behind jack, nudging him in the shoulder with one of the cans.

"Drink, Jacko?"

Jack put his hand up in the air and took the drink from the other man's hand and opened it. He didn't used to drink much, but Jack Harkness was a fast learner and what he had learned was that if Johnny offered him beer he should take it or face the consequences. Johnny sat down beside him.

"Thanks"

"So." He mirrored Jack's sitting position and took a few drinks, looking up at the sky. "Is he up there somewhere?"

"No." Jack shook his head. "I've looked. Every planet I go to I hope there's a version of him, just standing there waiting for me to show up, but there never is. I've given up now, resigned to the fact the he's gone."

"Not space you daft sod, heaven?"

"Heaven doesn't exist."

"Then where is he then?" Johnny looked contemplative for a moment. "Is he in Hell? Because when I was a kid they used to say that if you were ga-"

"There's no hell."

"So, if there's no heaven and no hell, where is he? Just floating around in the air?"

"You really don't want to know." Jack ran his fingers over the stopwatch that he held in his hand, the hand ticking time away. "He's gone and that's all that matters, what does it matter where?"

"Rhi wonders," he said. "All the bloody time."

"Tell her that heaven exists. I don't know what she would do if she knew where he actually was."

"She worries about you when you come here, she says you look depressed."

"I like it here."

"Here?" Johnny laughed and looked around. "You're bloody crazy, mate."

"It's the closest thing to home. You, Rhiannon and the kids, you're the closest thing to a family that I've got."

"They're hardly kids any more. David is twenty-two now, and Mica's eighteen. Neither of them show any bloody sign of moving out and giving us any peace and quiet."

"Ianto would have been thirty eight." Jack stared straight ahead, a slight smile curving at the corner of his mouth. "He would be freaking out about almost being forty, worrying about turning grey, starring in the mirror to see if he had wrinkles yet."

"And how old are you then?"

Jack smiled and took a long drink. "I don't think I even know the answer to that one any more. I come back every few months, and to you he's been gone thirteen years, but for me it has been longer, a lot longer."

"How's that?"

"I come back once a year, every year on the same day, but not in your time. I'm a year older every time you see me."

"So how long has it been, for you like?"

"Seventy-two years and counting."

"Bloody hell. So, this shit council estate in Wales is like your holiday?"

"I guess so." Jack laughed.

"I'd rather go to Malaga myself, but I suppose anything is better than bloody Butlins."

Johnny finished his beer and stood up and started to walk away.

"I am still welcome, aren't I?" Jack asked the question without looking up and Johnny put a hand on his shoulder.

"Family is family. Ianto was family and you two were-"

"Together." Jack smiled sadly. "A couple?"

"Yeah." Johnny squeezed Jack's shoulder reassuringly; he might have been as rough as a bag of broken bottles but he had his softer moments. "A couple of daft sods in love, now put a smile on your face and stop being so bloody depressing. Ianto wouldn't have wanted that."

Jack watched him go inside and lay down on the grass, looking up at the stars. Seventy-two years was a long time, even in his world, but the pain hadn't gone away. If he could stay away from earth, away from Wales, it would have been a little easier, but Jack never broke a promise.

* * *

 _Ianto was down in the archives when Jack finally found him, filing away Toshiko's workings._

 _"She never finished this," he said, hearing Jack as he walked in. "A few more equations and she would have had it, but she never got the chance."_

 _Jack wrapped one arm around him, holding his back to his chest. "I know this has hit you hard."_

 _"She's dead, Jack." He sighed and dropped the paper file. "And Owen, and God knows how many others there have been. Who's next?"_

 _"If we asked that every time we lost someone then we would never stop asking." He kissed Ianto's shoulder. "We need to carry on."_

 _"It'll be me. I'll be next, I know it."_

 _"Please tell me that we're not going to have this conversation?"_

 _"One day it'll be me." Ianto swallowed hard and closed his eyes, letting a tear roll down his cheek. "You'll be packing my work away and carrying on like any other day."_

 _"Never." Jack hugged him tightly from behind and closed his eyes to savour his scent. "Carrying on without you will never be the same."_

 _"Yes it will. Your world won't stop just because I'm not in it."_

 _"Wanna bet?" Jack held him tighter, resting his head on Ianto's shoulder. "I'm not even going to think about that. I don't want to, not when I've just lost them."_

 _"I have family Jack, a sister, did I ever tell you that?" Ianto turned around._

 _"A few times."_

 _"She has kids. Mica and David." He put his hand on Jack's neck and kissed his lips softly, letting the taste of him linger. "When I die-"_

 _"We're not having this conversation." He pushed himself away, distancing Ianto by his shoulders. "You're not going to die any time soon."_

 _"Yes, I am."_

 _"I don't want to talk about this."_

 _"Well I do." Ianto took his hand to stop him walking away. "They won't remember me Jack. I never see them, I'm always working, but I love them so much."_

 _"What are you asking?"_

 _"Just protect them, keep them safe and don't let them forget me."_

 _"Ianto-"_

 _"Promise me that you won't let them forget me."_

 _"I promise." Jack caressed his cheek. "How could anyone ever forget Ianto Jones?"_

 _Ianto wiped a tear and moved away from Jack. "You will."_

* * *

Mica Davies peeked out in the gap between the curtains in her bedroom, watching Jack as he finally went inside; he had been out there for hours, just looking at the sky and pressing buttons on his wrist strap. Mica didn't know what he had been doing, maybe he was planning his next journey, but whatever it was it was taking some time. She heard a knock on the door and jumped back a little.

"Who is it?"

"It's Dave, open up ratface!"

"Hold on!" Mica walked over to the door, checking that her dressing gown was straight, then opened the door; she leaned on the frame."What do you want?"

"Lend me a tenner till Monday."

"No!"

"Come on sis." He flicked her nose with his finger and she batted it away. "You owe me."

"Not a bloody tenner I don't."

"I'll pay you back, don't get your knickers in a twist."

She sighed heavily and grabbed her purse from the computer desk. She took out a tenner and held it out to him then pulled it back.

"If I lend you a tenner, and _lend_ being the most important part of that sentence, do you promise you will leave me alone?"

"Yes." David tried to grab it, but she pulled it further away from his reach.

"And I'll get it back?"

"Yes."

She pulled it away from him again. "Promise?"

"Yes. For God's sake just give it me!" He grabbed the money. "Oh, and by the way, I can see your jeans. If you're going to sneak out you should really be better at hiding it by now." He pointed at her legs and at the smallest hint of rolled up denim. "I don't know why you bother sneaking out anyway, it's not like you're a kid any more."

"You know what Mam is like."

"Mica?" He narrowed his eyes. "What are you up to?"

Mica grabbed her brother by his Jacket and pulled him towards her, glaring through him with threatening eyes that only a sister could manage. "You need to learn to mind your own business."

"And you need to learn to give gifts to your brother when he's skint." He smiled.

"Fine!" She let him go. "You can keep the tenner, but I don't take kindly to blackmail."

"I'm your brother," David said. "Blackmail is how I show you that I love you."

"Bugger off." She put her hand over his face and pushed him out of the door, then shut it.

"Thank you!"

Mica locked the door and hung up her dressing gown; she unrolled her jeans and pulled on her boots, then put on her short leather jacket. Grabbing the rucksack from underneath her bed, she walked back to the window and checked the garden again, scanning the whole area. When she was certain the coast was clear, Mica opened the window and sat on the windowsill, dangling her legs out. She checked her ponytail, making sure it was tight, and tucked it into the back of her jacket before zipping it up to her neck. She took her trusty PDA out of her pocket and pressed a few buttons, waiting a few moments until the thin metal poles stuck out of the brickwork on the side of the house; It was only half an inch but it was just enough.

Mica climbed out the window and lowered herself down the make-shift ladder carefully, jumping the last two feet. She stopped for a moment for the time to pass and waited to check that her escape route had disappeared back into the wall. After ensuring the wall looked normal again, she walked over to the fence, checking behind her, and climbed over it. When she hit the ground on the other side she looked at her PDA; Mica slipped her earpiece in and listened to the frequency signal, then turned to her left and started to run.


	2. Chapter 2

Jack stood on the corner in the middle of the Cromwell estate and looked at it; the whole place looked like a scrapyard, with cars with no windscreens held up by bricks and rusted bikes in the gardens. One house was boarded, burnt through completely, with graffiti on the walls and holes in the roof; he could see needles on the ground in the grass and broken beer bottles littered the street. He looked up and saw a pair of shoes, laces tied together, hanging over the wire that connected the telegraph poles. It was a sad state, Britain was a sad state, but then again it had been for a while.

He looked at the gang of kids that sat on the wall in broad daylight; they were no older than twelve years old, but they were smoking and drinking proudly. The estate was nothing to be proud about. He had always had problems imagining Ianto living there, in the house on the corner where his sister now lived; he couldn't imagine him mingling with the kids on the walls or wearing a hoodie and smoking.

Jack looked over at the house on the corner and saw a man on the step; he held a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other and waved. Standing up, the young man made his way over, flicking the cigarette on the ground and threw him arms around him.

"Back again?" He pulled away and looked at him. "You coming in?"

"Sure."

David was older now, 22 years old, almost exactly as old as Ianto had been the first time Jack had met him, but he looked much younger. David didn't wear a suit, he didn't have a job to wear one to, but nobody did. 2022 was bleak. No jobs, no culture and no trust; the benefit system had gone into overdrive, with a benefit for everything from a broken thumb to early onset dementia. The nanny state was huge, with CCTV camera's hooked up to facial recognition systems; every movement was recorded and analysed, collecting evidence for crimes that hadn't even been committed yet. Everyone was a criminal in the eyes of the government, and that government, with it's spin doctors, secrets and corruption sickened Jack; it was one of the many reasons he didn't return for more than a few days at a time. Jack blamed them for everything bad in the world and they weren't doing anything to change his mind. A camera turned towards him and made a sound like a zooming lens and Jack glared into it until it turned away. The government had been keeping a close eye on him for a while, tracking his movement; it was either them or Torchwood and he didn't want to talk to either of them.

"Bloody security camera's," David said. "Never know when to mind their own fucking business."

"I'm used to it now."

"They treat you like a bloody criminal. They're the criminals if you ask me. Murderers, every single one of them."

"They treat everyone like a criminal." Jack followed David inside and closed the door behind him, then hung up his coat.

"Mam! Uncle Jack's here!"

Rhiannon came into the hallway and hugged her visitor. She was older now, forty-one, with two grown kids that showed no sign of moving out. "God, it's depressing to see you."

"Thanks." Jack chuckled a little, squeezing her tightly.

"You look so bloody young." She led Jack into the kitchen and switched on the kettle. "Cuppa?"

"Wouldn't say no."

"Long journey?"

"Very." Jack waved over at Jonny who sat on the couch playing a game on the computer. "Hey Johnny."

"How's the aliens then?" Jonny asked, his gaze never leaving the flashing screen.

"Ignore him." Rhiannon gave him a mug of tea. "Fish and chips for dinner?"

"Sure."

"Jonny!" Rhiannon shouted. "Get down that chippy, and I want the good fish this time and don't go to the one with the lumpy gravy."

"They all have lumpy gravy." Johnny stood beside Jack and took the money that his wife offered from her purse. "You want peas, Jack?"

"No thanks."

Johnny looked out the window and groaned when he heard the thunder; the rain wasn't far behind.

"It's bloody raining now."

"Then you had better run then hadn't you, and take David with you."

She watched them go, then turned around to Jack and smiled fondly. "Now, give me the gossip."

* * *

Mica sat at the top of the stairs watching Jack as he talked to her mother in the kitchen. He had visited every few months for as long as she could remember, staying for a few days at a time to catch up before leaving to travel the universe again. She looked down at the PDA and tapped away at a few buttons; it was the only way to get any peace, the only way to keep Jack from harm and intrusion. Mica knew that she would get in trouble if the government found out what she was doing, imprisoned for her efforts most likely, branded a digital terrorist, but that was nothing compared to what her mother would do if she knew.

Jack caught her eye and she smiled, waving at him in the way she had done since she was five. She watched him as he excused himself from the conversation with her mother and joined her on the stairs. He sat down next to her, grabbing the PDA before she could even think about hiding it.

"You're going to get arrested," he said. "If the authorities ever find out you're not going to have a leg to stand on."

"They're not smart enough to find out." Mica shrugged. "They're stupid, the Government."

"They're not as dumb as you think. They just don't quite realise who they're dealing with." Jack smiled. "You have the mind of a Jones."

"It's not hard. I just intercept the software when I see you coming and scramble the signal, then I replace your image with the image of someone else. It's a two minute loop and by the time they realise you're inside and out of their view. They just think it's a bug in the software."

"You still need to watch it."

"I'm one step ahead, it's Torchwood that I find it hard to fool. They're smarter than the government, nosier than the police."

"Well, they learned from the best."

"Mica!" The thunderous voice from downstairs made them both freeze and Jack did Mica a favour, hiding the PDA behind his back. "Did you do something to those camera's outside?"

"No. Why?"

"The engineers are out again!" Rhiannon stood at the bottom of the stairs, her arms crossed in that way she did when she was really angry.

"Imagine that?" Mica stood up, taking the PDA from Jack to put in her pocket. "Must be a bug or something."

"Oh a bug in their software again, is it?"

"I just wanted to help Uncle Jack out, keep the bloody Government off his back."

"I could bloody throttle you sometimes."

"I won't do it again."

"You better not."

"I'm going to go and- do- something else." She backed away and headed towards her bedroom, fearing the certain wrath of her mother. "Later, Uncle Jack."

"That bloody girl!" Rhiannon sighed and sat down beside Jack. "That girl will be the death of me."

"She's clever though."

"Ianto was clever too and look what happened to him." Rhiannon looked down at her hands. "He was dead before he was thirty, dead at twenty-five, I don't want her to be clever if that's where it gets you."

"When you say that I always feel as though you're blaming me."

"I just wish he had been stupid. I wish he had worked in Debenhams like my Dad, or sat on the dole and drank beer. Maybe he could have worked in a bank if he wanted to make something of himself." She sighed, holding her warm cup of tea in her hand. "But no. No, he wanted to fight aliens and save the bloody world. Stupid sod."

"Ianto would've never been happy working in a bank."

"Maybe not, but he'd be alive," she said. "He'd be here annoying the shit out of me like he should be."

"You don't know that." Jack looked down at his hands.

"I suppose not." She turned to face him. "I don't mean to blame you, it just comes out that way."

"I know."

"You bloody don't, y'know?" She put her cup down onto the stair beside her, moving her hand to cover Jack's fingers, speaking slowly to make him understand. "You didn't kill my brother."

"I may as well have."

"It was his decision, you've said that so many times before. He wanted to save the world, he wouldn't let you give in."

"I know."

"And what was he?" She asked him, a smile tugging at her lips.

"A stubborn sod with a death wish." Jack smiled as he said it, Rhiannon's words from years ago. "I know."

They heard the door open, then close with a bang. "Chips!"


	3. Chapter 3

Mica walked in the house via the back door and took off her Jacket. She held it up and inspected it; there was a rip in it again but nothing that she couldn't fix. The blood on the collar was easily cleaned, that was the great thing about leather, but that rip really did need urgent attention. She sat down at the table and unzipped her boots before peeling them off her legs; they were covered in mud and needed a good clean before she used them again, but she was too tired to think.

"You're home late." Jack stood in the doorway, his shoes off and his braces hanging loose. He had obviously been ready to climb onto the sofa and try to catch a few hours sleep.

"Am I?" Mica felt the kettle to check if it was still hot, then made herself a cup of coffee. She sat down at the table. "Do you want one?"

"I don't drink it."

"Sorry, I forgot." She shook her hair from her ponytail and wrapped the band around her wrist, then combed it out with her fingers.

"So, where have you been?" Jack asked, sitting opposite her.

"Pub."

"Pub?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah. Pub."

He leaned in close. "Funny, you don't smell of alcohol."

"I had coke tonight, I like coke. I'm on a detox." She looked into the corner of the room and let out a nervous smile.

"I see." Jack sat back in the chair and crossed her arms. "And the mud on your boots?"

"I lost my keys in the bushes," she said.

Mica Davies was a good liar; she had one of those angelic smiles, a butter-wouldn't-melt quality that many people found it hard to see past. It helped her find her way through life, it helped her through the lie that she lived, but it didn't work with everyone. Jack was immune to her puppy-dog eyes and sweet smile; that trick had stopped working when she was ten. And as she looked at him over the table, now much more a woman than a cute innocent child, she knew that her secret was out. He knew she hadn't been at the pub, of course he did, but she could tell from his eyes that he didn't know where she had been; he could never find out.

"Just promise me that you haven't been doing anything dangerous or illegal."

"Bloody hell, Jack!" Mica shook her head. "You're worse than my Dad."

"Promise me."

"Fine." She sighed. "I promise."

"I worry about you sometimes."

"Why?" Mica shrugged. "I'm a big girl now, I'm not five anymore, I can look after myself."

Jack leaned on the table and watched her drink her coffee. "You're too clever."

"Well I'm very sorry that I have a brain worthy of more than finding creative ways to cheat the system." She smiled at him and leaned across the table, meeting his eyes. "So, come on, tell me then."

"Tell you what?"

"Where you've been this time, what you've seen."

"You always need to know."

"Of course I do."

It was like a tradition. Every time Jack came back he would tell her his stories about his travel and she would sit there, every bit as amazed as she had been when she was a kid, and listen. Her brother had always been more interested in the monsters and the guns; she wanted to know how other worlds looked and the technology it had.

"I saw seven sunsets at once, all disappearing over the horizon of Kilac bay. Beautiful. Green skies and purple waters. You would have loved it." Jack walked over to the wall and switched off the light, then returned to the table and pressed a few buttons on his wrist strap. An image came alive on the ceiling, showing pictures of the world he had just described. "I spent months there, but eventually I had to move on."

"You never stay in one place very long."

"I don't like to get attached." Jack changed the image; visions of vast red deserts and streams that ran over rocks flashed in the dark. "I climbed the rocks there and when I got to the top I just jumped off."

"Was it cold there?" she asked, her eyes wide with excitement. "It looks windy."

"The breeze was warm." Jack closed down the image. "I'll go back one day."

"Would you take me there?"

"Mica."Jack sighed; he didn't want this conversation again. "No."

"This planet is so small," she moaned, "I want to see more."

"No you don't."

"Every night I read his journals, one after another, talking about what he saw. Aliens and monsters and dinosaurs and technology. But that's old news. I've seen them all on the news, now I'm ready to see what he never could."

"And what's that?"

"Other worlds, other planets."

"No." Jack closed his eyes and sighed.

"He wanted to travel with you Uncle Jack, he always wanted more than the shit that came here." She reached across the table and grabbed his hand. "He knew you would leave one day and he had no intention of letting you go without him."

"I wouldn't have left."

"But you will tomorrow. You'll look up at the sky, press a few buttons and away you'll go. You'll run away again. How hard would it really be to take me with you for a while?"

"Mica." Jack kissed her hand. "He did not want that for you. He loved you and he wanted you safe. It's not safe out there."

"He was never safe and he was happy."

"No," Jack's voice cracked a little. "And now he's dead. I punish myself every day for that."

"Jack-"

"End of conversation." He stood up and leaned on the back of the chair. "Don't ask me again."

* * *

Gwen Williams opened her internal email with a lacklustre click of the mouse. It was almost time for home and she was ten emails away from her bed. It was late, but Gwen always worked late on a Thursday; it was her Government day, full of meetings in London with the PM and the secretary of defence, not to mention the idiot from UNIT.

She clicked through the emails.

"Boring. Boring. Boring. Government Rubbish. Chain email from Tim about lesbian aliens; I'll kill him when I'm less tired. Report on Retcon misuse at the zoo. Stationery order to be signed. Hate mail. Ianto thinking he's funny. Bogus report on-"

Gwen stopped talking to herself and scrolled back. Ianto Jones. That was a name that hadn't cropped up on her internal email for over thirteen years, and it wouldn't, given that he was deceased. She clicked on it and read it.

FROM: Ianto Jones

TO: Gwen Williams

SUBJECT: End of the world.

We're all out of coffee. No idea how I ever let that happen. Nipped out, don't let Jack use the instant. I'll get you a doughnut and pass it to you under the desk in a brown paper bag. Jack must never know our secret, he must never know there are doughnuts between us, his muffin top is too big already.

Hold the fort,

Ianto.

xx

Gwen smiled and ran her fingers over the screen, then read the last words again. "Hold the fort," she sighed. "I hate computer bugs."

It had been the last email that he had sent, the day before the kids had started chanting, and she had deleted it the moment she read it. It had been just his kind of joke, one that she missed every day. She sighed and accessed Ianto's account; two words flashed up on the screen.

ACCOUNT REACTIVATED

"I wish."

She took a deep breath, desperately trying to get rid of that feeling, the one that still made her want to cry after all these years, and accessed the security settings. She took a moment and looked at the file photo; he looked so young. Of course Ianto Jones had been young, too young and far too brave. Gwen kissed her finger and pressed it to the screen, then clicked on the 'deceased' setting.

Two words flashed on the screen.

ACCOUNT DEACTIVATED

Gwen switched off the computer and put on her Jacket, flicking her hair over the collar. She walked through the hub, switching off the lights on the stations. As she was leaving something caught her eye; an image flashed up on one of the computer screens. It had happened again. Her visitor was back and it was going to be a little longer before she made it home.

* * *

Mica walked into her room and put away her things before sitting at her computer desk; she typed in a few commands onto the black prompt screen and waited for a blue box to appear.

The Cardiff CCTV system was very hard to get into. It was protected by a seventeen digit pass code that changed every twelve minutes, but Mica Davies was smarter than the average eighteen year old. She had Torchwood software that nobody knew she had, and she knew exactly how to use it. She opened her desk drawer and took out a memory stick, then inserted it into the drive; after a few moments the pass-code was in the box, 445-985-254-776-101-03.

"Come on baby," she said, stroking the screen as the last digit fluctuated between 03 and 08. "You can do it."

An image flashed up on her screen of the park. The three weevils were waiting, tied to a tree; it was her calling card. She zoomed in on the figure that came into view on the screen, then smiled.

Gwen Williams looked at the camera and smiled, holding up her thumb as a signal, then scrambled the image with a device.

Uncle Ianto had wormed his way into Torchwood, and so could she; she was almost in.


	4. Chapter 4

Jack stood outside Mica's bedroom door and waited a while before finding the courage to knock.

"Hi." She answered the door and stepped aside to let him in.

"Where have you been all day?"

"Busy."

"Busy, huh?" Jack chuckled and tilted her face to look him in the eyes. "Not ignoring me?"

"Are you here to say goodbye again?" She closed her door behind him. "Because you're really good at that."

"You can't be angry at me because I won't take you with me." Jack sighed and sat down in her computer chair.

"You used to tell me that when I was older you would think about it." She sat down on the bed and crossed her legs. "You lied to me for all those years."

"I didn't lie. I did think about it, and I decided that the answer is no. It's too dangerous, besides having you with me would limit where I could go."

"Well, that's not selfish."

"And asking me to take you with me isn't?" Jack sighed and walked across the room, then sat down beside her. "I travel alone, it's the only way for me right now. I need to be on my own."

"And will you come back?"

"I always come back." Jack wrapped his arm around her and hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her head. "I'll be back in a few months as usual. Maybe I'll even bring you a present."

Mica smiled. "Really?"

"If I find something worthy of you, sure." He stood up. "It's late, I should probably hit the hay."

"Will I see you before you go?"

"Of course."

"I always think, when you go, that maybe he was right about you." She stood up and looked at him; she was a lot shorter than Jack, standing just over 5"2, and she had to look up just to see his chin. She spent most of her life talking to that chin.

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe one day you will just disappear and never come back." She lowered her eyes. "That's what he always thought."

"You really are too much like him sometimes." Jack wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. "I left one daughter behind, I'm not going to leave you behind too."

"Promise me," she whispered. "You're the only person who really knew him. You're the closest thing I have to him and if you go I'll lose him forever."

"I promise." Jack's voice cracked as he whispered. "And I rarely make promises."

"Okay."

"You should sleep too. You were out far too late last night." He slipped his hand into his pocket and took out a small device; it was no bigger than the head of a pin and virtually invisible.

"I'm going to bed right now."

"Good." Jack caressed her cheek, attaching the device to the back of her neck as he did. "I'll see you tomorrow before I leave."

* * *

Jack stayed a few yards behind Mica as she jogged through the darkness, heading towards the wooded area by the Park. Her boots sounded heavy on the pavement as she followed the signal on her PDA and ran at the same time; this wasn't something new, Mica had been doing this for a while. She stopped on the corner and looked around; Jack pressed his back to the wall to stay out of her sight.

She put her hand in her pocket and took out a device, a one Jack recognised well and held it up. The lights on the CCTV system went out.

* * *

Gwen Cooper jogged through the hub, skipping three steps of the ladder on her way down, and hovered over the shoulder of a girl who sat at a computer. She smiled.

"Is it our little Zorro back again?"

"I think so." Her fingers moved across the keyboard with precision as she looked through the system. "All the camera's just went out and I can see a collection of Weevil signals in the park. All the usual signs of our little visitor."

"Can you unscramble the images?"

"No." Claire shook her head. "Same technology as us, and you know how that works."

"Show me the minute they went out."

Another image appeared on the screen of someone holding up a device, but it was too far away to see anything other than her small frame. "From this angle it looks hopeful, however, when you access the facial recognition software it all gets just a little odd."

"Odd how?"

"It's all just a big joke." Clare's fingers moved across the keyboard and brought up a history.

"Coco the clown?" Gwen smiled when she saw the images. "Original. She either wants to get our attention, or she wants to remain unseen. Whichever it is I like her style." She sighed. "Go a little further back, track her journey, there has to be an image somewhere."

"Well, this is interesting!" Another voice came from across the room. "Coco the clown, Nemo, Skippy, Ronald McDonald, Judy Jetson, Mickey mouse, Topcat, Freddy Krueger and, her personal favourite, Tin-Tin."

"She's been messing with the system again I take it."

"Yep."

"It's starting to get a little annoying, but I do respect her sense of humour." She smiled. "It's very Torchwood."

"Hold on a minute, I'm getting something. You're going to want to see this!"

Gwen jogged over to the other computer station and stared at the screen. "Tim, is that who I think it is?"

"Captain Jack Harkness." He pressed a few buttons. "By the looks of it he's been hanging around quite a lot recently, but always disappears from the system as soon as he steps into the Cromwell estate."

"That's odd." She leaned over him. "When did he first show up?"

"Just let me cross reference the systems-" It took a moment for the information to appear. "2009," he said. "November 4th on the Cromwell estate."

"Bloody Hell."

"He's returned a lot since then. Several sightings all together, then nothing for months."

"He's visiting," she said. "And I think I know who."

* * *

Jack followed Mica a little further, watching her as she approached the wooded area of the park and looked around. Mica looked over in his direction and he took a dive into the bush, landing uncomfortably with a thick twig in a place that a twig had no business to be. Jack clamped his teeth down on his bottom lip and squeezed out a few painful tears before removing the leafy branch from between his legs; it had been a long time since he had tracked anyone, and he didn't remember it ever hurting so much.

Mica put down her rucksack behind a tree and opened it; she pulled out two guns and loaded them, then pushed them into the waistband of her jeans. She loaded another and held it in her hand as she moved silently, checking her PDA at the same time.

"What the hell is she doing?" Jack whispered to himself.

A familiar sound came from the other side of the Park and Jack knew it immediately. He looked over and saw them, three large Weevils closing in on Mica, but she knew they were coming. She ran at them, kicking one in the face whilst she shot the other; the third was taken out by her elbow and the fourth that lurked in the dark just growled. Jack watched as she put a bullet through another Weevil's head, right between the eyes, and kicked the third down to the ground. She stood on its neck, her foot just a breath away from it's jaws and emptied the barrel into its chest.

Mica threw the empty gun towards her rucksack and pulled out the others from her belt as she walked around slowly, creeping around in the darkness, waiting. She caught the site of the fourth Weevil, and from quite a distance, shot it with both guns until it fell where it stood.

Jack could see a Weevil behind her that she couldn't, sneaking up silently with salivating teeth and dead eyes. Whatever signal she was looking at didn't tell her it was there; he watched it as it got closer, edging towards the young woman, and growled. There were others, too many for her to handle; Mica was surrounded by growls and teeth and eyes. She fired her gun at three of them and took them out, but when she went to shoot the fourth the barrel was empty.

* * *

"I think our little Zorro might be in a spot of bother!" Gwen picked up her guns and tucked them into her belt. "There's loads of Weevils out there and she's good, but she's not immortal." She pulled Tim up by the hood of his shirt. "You come with me, Claire you're my eyes and ears."

"What are you going to do?" The blonde turned around from the computer and looked at her.

"She might not be one of us yet, but I can't stand by and watch a pack of Weevils tear her limb by limb. Besides, I really want to know who she is and I'm getting to the bottom of this tonight!"

"What about Harkness?"

"I'm bringing him in. He's got a hell of a lot of explaining to do."

* * *

Jack could see Mica backing away towards him, unarmed and scared; she kicked one between the eyes and punched the other, but it didn't stop them.

"Over here!" Jack stumbled out from the bush whistled to get their attention. "Remember me?"

They focussed their attention on Jack and left Mica alone, wandering closer to him and exploring a scent that they recognised from a long time ago.

"No Weevil spray and clamps today boys, just you and me. Just like the good old days."

"Jack!" Mica's voice spat at him from his left. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving your ass!" Jack said.

"I was coping!"

"Could have fooled me." Jack braced himself as the two Weevils launched themselves at him, biting his arms and his neck. He groaned and kicked them off one by one, then picked a stick up from the ground, using it to strike them over the head. "Who do you think you are, Buffy the Vampire Slayer?"

"Who?"

"It was a TV show," Jack groaned. "Good cast actually, musical episodes weren't bad!"

"Thanks for the pop culture lesson Uncle Jack, but I'm really not sure this is the time."

He heard a shot and one of the Weevils dropped to the ground, paralysed; the other gnawed away at his neck, stronger than Jack remembered, and tried to chew through his jugular.

"There's too many of them!" Jack said, pushing one off him just a the other one attacked. "Run!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Listen to your Uncle Jack and just run!"

"I don't run, that's not who I am." Mica scrambled to find the extra tranquilizers in her bag and loaded them into the barrel of the gun quickly, then fired three of the four shots into the pack of Weevils. Only one remained and it was at Jack's neck, too strong for him to fight.

"Just run!" Jack shouted. "I'll be fine!"

Mica fired a shot into the back of the Weevil's head, but it was too late.

Jack let out an almighty roar as the teeth ripped through his neck. The last thing he remembered was the crunching of bones and blood; his world faded to black.


	5. Chapter 5

"Jack!" Mica pulled the Weevil off Jack and sat on the ground beside him, touching the blood on his neck. "Uncle Jack?" She shook him violently by the lapels of his coat and pulled his head onto her lap, slapping his cheeks. "Come on! Please!"

Jack showed no signs of moving, and the blood from his neck was still flowing over Mica's fingers, seeping into the creases of her skin. His eyes were locked open, cold and dead; his mouth was open too, still in the midst of a scream that never got the chance to escape.

"Jack!" Mica held onto him, holding him close against her; she touched his cheek and caressed his face, looking at the coldness of his eyes as they stayed open, staring. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart started to beat just a little faster.

"Jack?" Her voice started to crack and a lump in her throat formed; her eyes felt hot, stinging from unwelcome tears, and she felt the cracks in her heart break again. She sniffed back tears and took a deep breath, then shook him again. Mica repeated his name but her mouth wouldn't let it escape; she was starting to loose hope. Her Uncle's diaries had talked about the many deaths of Jack. He had written about how the blood would just disappear, wounds would heal and Jack would wake with a burst of life and a gasping breath; he also wrote that one day he was scared he wouldn't. That day had come.

"Oh God!" Mica dropped his body and stood up; she pressed her hands to her face, leaving fingerprints of blood on her cheeks. "Oh God, Jack."

She looked around, cold and alone, and crushed the skull of the Weevil beside her with the heel of her boot out of anger, then did it again and again until the bone was crushed into the dirt. A sound came from behind her; one of them was trying to move and she knew she had to act fast.

She dragged them towards the thickest tree one by one using every ounce of strength she could muster, then grabbed the thick rope from her bag. She tied them to it binding them as tightly as she could then collapsed on the ground. Mica wept into the dirt, mixing the blood underneath her fingernails with sodden mud, and glared into the dead eyes of the monsters as they slowly regained consciousness. She found her strength and stood up, dragging dirt into her eyes as he tried to wipe away her tears, then fell back down.

Her tears stopped flowing suddenly when she heard a gasp from behind her, and she got up, stumbling over to Jack as she woke.

"Jack!" She flung her arms around him as he came back to life.

"You're in so much fucking trouble."

"I thought you had-"

"I wish." His voice was groggy and when she helped him sit up he groaned in pain. He turned his head to one side and his neck made a loud clicking noise. "Ah! Not had that painful a death for a while."

"I'm so sorry!" She helped him to his feet and supported his large frame. "We need to go before they get here."

"Before who get here?"

"Shit!" Mica saw a light shining through the trees and pulled Jack into the bushes, pushing him in before she joined him.

"This is no time for hide and seek!" Jack whispered. "Now are you going to tell me-"

Mica put her hand over his mouth. "Shh!"

Jack looked between the gap in the bushes and focussed on the bright light, watching with shock as he saw Gwen Williams come into view. She looked older, but it was definitely her; she was still alive.

"Bloody Hell!" Gwen crouched down on the ground beside the weevil and poked the inside of its head with the tip of her gun. "That's just lovely."

"Looks like Zorro could handle herself after all." Tim joined Gwen and put on a pair of examination gloves, then turned the Weevil onto its front. "It was shot before its head was flattened." He opened his bag and took out a pair of tweezers, then used them to pick out the tranquilizer from its back.

"Is it the same?"

"Yeah. Definitely Zorro." he inspected the bullet. "I would love to know where she got these made. They're almost as good as ours."

"Why always Weevils though?" Gwen took out her gun and shot the waking Weevils between the eyes, sending them back into their paralytic state. "Why not something else?"

"No idea."

Gwen looked around. "Well, she's nowhere to be seen now. Let's get these boys back to the hub before they wake up again."

* * *

Mica splashed her face with cold water then leaned on the sink before looking at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot, still encrusted with a little dirt, but at least her face was clean. She swept her hair back again, pulling it into a ponytail and took a deep breath. She was a mess.

She walked out of the bathroom and back into the all-night café, sitting opposite Jack. She hung her head low and wrapped her hands around the hot cup of coffee; she needed it.

"So, are you going to explain to me exactly what you were playing at?"

Mica stayed silent and looked down at her hands; she couldn't look at him, she couldn't meet his eyes, not when she knew the look that she would find there. Between her father, her mother and Jack she felt suffocated. She had been wrapped in cotton wool her whole life, stopped from so much as crossing the road without a health and safety assessment, and now he was being stared at in that usual way. She was the baby of the family, the one who couldn't take care of herself, at least in everyone else's eyes but her own, and that was something she knew she would never change.

"I'm waiting," Jack said.

"It has nothing to do with you," she said. "I have a life of my own."

"Obviously."

"You had no right to follow me Jack." Mica looked at him from across the table.

"No?"

"No."

"And what do you think your parents would say?" Jack asked. "What would _Ianto_ say if he were here?"

"He would be proud of me."

"No. He would think you had a death wish."

"I Want to be like him." Mica looked down into the depths of her coffee.

"Dead?" Jack asked. "Because that's where you're heading if you go on like this."

"I was fine. I was coping."

"What the hell were you doing fighting Weevils in the first place?"

"You want to know?" She asked, leaning over the table. "You really want to know?"

"Yes."

"Because it's what he did." Mica raised his eyes to look at him. "It's how he met you. It was the start of the rest of his life. I want to know the life he lived first hand."

"A Weevil almost tore out your jugular!" Jack shouted at her under his breath.

"Exactly, almost." She spat. "My juglar was fine, your jugular wasn't quite so lucky though, was it?"

"I was saving your ass!"

"I was safe." She took his hand. "I know what what I'm doing, just let me live my life."

"You could've got really hurt!"

"I was fine until you came along with your big flappy coat and hero act and stuck your ore in."

"You almost got yourself killed!"

"I know and I love it." She smiled. "It's fun."

Jack laughed, more from bemusement than anything else. "Fun?"

"Yes."

"Fun?!" He laughed again and repeated the word to himself in disbelief. "Fun. It was fun?"

"Yeah, fun, you remember what that's like, don't you Jack? Or is that part of you gone too?"

"Ianto died-"

"Oh give it a rest!" She stood up and dropped some money onto the table then leaned on the back of the chair as she tucked it in. "You go on and on about how he died, it's like you forget that he ever lived."

* * *

Gwen sat at her desk and searched through her database as she took a sip of her cold coffee. It was quiet in the hub now that the others had gone home to their families and their beds, but she had something to do before she could get back. The facial recognition database was starting to help her build up a clearer picture of Jack's movements over the last thirteen years. He had visited the Cromwell estate much more than she had first thought; a few times in 2010, then again in 2011. After that he had started to visit a lot more often. In 2012 his face had popped up on the database seventy-nine times, yet he hadn't been back to Torchwood. He hadn't come back for her.

She clicked on one of the old Images and loaded the recording of one such visit in 2015, seven years ago, and watched it. Two kids seemed very happy to see him and ran across the estate to greet him, followed by two faces that Gwen remembered clearly.

She closed her eyes and sighed, shutting down the software, then picked up her phone and dialled a number.

"Hello, is that Rhiannon?" She smiled. "Gwen Williams here, I'm sorry to call so late."

* * *

Jack followed Mica down the street, jogging after her until he caught up.

"Mica!"

He was running by the time he finally caught up with her, matching her pace; Jack Harkness may have been immortal but he wasn't immune from passing out from a stitch. He pulled at her arm, but she moved away.

"Wait!" Jack finally pulled her to a stop.

"I'm not Alice you know?!" Mica turned around.

"What?" Jack stepped back, shocked by her words; he hadn't heard that name mentioned for a very long time.

"I'm not your daughter!"

"I know that."

"Do you?" she asked. "Are you sure, because you spend more time behaving like my Dad than you do my friend."

Jack regained his breath. "Am I so wrong for wanting to keep you safe?"

"I know you mean well." She calmed down and sighed. "I have reasons for wanting to live my life this way, would it really be so hard to respect them? I'm not five years old any more Jack, I'm big enough to tie my own shoes and make my own decisions."

"I can't bear to see you end up like him."

"But he ended up a hero Jack, you told me that so many times."

"He was brave and he died a hero, but if he hadn't been so brave then maybe he would be here now."

"Well, I'm proud of who he was." She put her hands on his shoulders. "That's why I'm doing this."

"And what are you doing?"

"I'm going to get into myself into Torchwood."

He shook his head. "The hell you are."

"I wasn't asking your permission."


End file.
